rhoticizm

[Simackova Sarka]

Dear list members,

I am writing a paper about a nonstandard pronunciation of apical trill
in Czech. It involves retracted articulation resulting in a
French-sounding 'r'. Retracted pronunciation is perceived as defective
and is treated by speech therapists. It is a relatively frequent
defect, which even has its folk name. According to some
older sources, approximately 22% of reported speech defects among
Czech school children concern rhotacizms. From informal reports I
learned that retracted pronunciation of tongue tip trill is quite
common across languages (Italian, Finnish, Bulgarian, Russian, Polish,
and Indonesian). I am looking for crosslinguistic information about
acquisition of apical trill. I have the following questions:

1. Czech speech therapists say that children who substitute a
non-rhotic sound for /r/ are more likely to get rid of the
substitution. On the other hand, children who substitute a back rhotic
often keep this pronunciation till adulthood. Could anyone confirm
this for another language (other languages)?
2. /r/ is a difficult sound to acquire and children use all sorts of
substitutes before they can produce it properly around the age 4.
Prototypical variants are [j], [v], [w], [h], and in the later stage
most frequently [l]. It seems to me that children who grow up to
speak without an apparent defect rarely substitute a back trill.
There are not many longitudinal studies of phonological development of
Czech children, which I could use to verify this idea. I wonder
whether anyone might know about relevant data from e.g. Italian,
Spanish, Finnish, etc.
3. The defective pronunciation of /r/ in Czech is often characterized
by excessive trilling. Is this the case in other languages?
4. Speech pathologists, who recognize several types of rhotacizm,
describe the retracted /r/ as a velar trill (the rear edges of the
velum are vibrating or the edges of the back of the tongue). They
point out that velar trill is the most frequent type of rhotacizm in
Czech and that it is different from the uvular trill which is quite
rare. I wonder whether the velar variant of the trill is also
described in other languages.
5. Do children acquiring French or German have a hard time with the
uvular 'r'? Do speech therapists have to pay special attention to
'r'? Is rhotacizm a common speech defect?

I will be glad to make a summary of your responses and send them to
the list. Thank you for your help.

Sarka Simackova
Dept. of English and American Studies
Palacky University Olomouc
Krizkovskeho 10
772 00 Olomouc